On the Job
Practice
One of Wisconsin’s leading election law litigators, Attorney Jeffrey A. Mandell represented Governor Tony Evers in the bevy of challenges to the validity of Wisconsin’s November 2020 election and represents the City of Green Bay in relation to the Wisconsin Assembly’s broad investigation of Wisconsin elections. He previously prosecuted the complaints that kept Kanye West and Howie Hawkins off of Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential ballot. He has represented Disability Rights Wisconsin in defending the statutory provision that guarantees “indefinitely confined” voters access to absentee ballots, and he helped the Service Employees International Union block efforts to purge hundreds of thousands of registered voters from Wisconsin’s rolls. Earlier, Jeff led the state constitutional challenge against the Wisconsin Legislature’s December 2018 lame-duck extraordinary session.
Jeff leads two practice teams at Stafford Rosenbaum—appeals and election and political law. He argues frequently before the Wisconsin Supreme Court and state courts at every level. He regularly handles cases and appeals in federal courts, within Wisconsin and beyond. He has participated in cases at the U.S. Supreme Court about a broad range of issues, from election law to takings, administrative law to civil procedure, class actions to civil liberties.
Jeff has been a commercial litigator for more than fifteen years, first at Bartlit Beck (Chicago), then at Jones Day (D.C.), and now at Stafford Rosenbaum (Madison). He excels in complex litigation, regardless of subject matter. He is the current co-author of the definitive treatise on the Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law, and he regularly counsels and represents dealers and grantors alike on issues under that law and related statutes. He has represented a tobacco company for more than a decade in the remedial stages of a civil RICO case; he helped a financial-guarantee insurer navigate exit from Wisconsin’s largest-ever insurance rehabilitation proceeding; he has successfully challenged State procurement decisions on behalf of disappointed bidders; he works with creditors in bankruptcy proceedings, municipalities in litigation involving statutory requirements, and a variety of parties in contract, tort, property, administrative, and patent disputes.
Jeff graduated from the University of Chicago Law School with high honors. Immediately after law school, Jeff served as a law clerk to the Honorable A. Raymond Randolph on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Jeff is admitted to practice in Wisconsin, Illinois, and D.C., as well as before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the D.C., Second, Sixth, and Seventh Circuits, the U.S. District Courts for the District of Columbia, Northern District of Illinois, and Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin, and the bankruptcy courts in both districts of Wisconsin. Jeff is an elected member of the American Law Institute, as well as a Fellow of both the American Bar Foundation and the Wisconsin Law Foundation.
Jeff founded, and serves as both President and Lead Counsel of, Law Forward, a nonprofit, nonpartisan law firm that protects and advances democracy in Wisconsin. He serves on several other nonprofit Boards, including the Wisconsin Equal Justice Fund, the American Constitution Society Madison Lawyer Chapter, the Aldo Leopold Nature Center, and Beth Israel Center.
Jeff has been named a Best Lawyer (since 2021) in his appellate practice and commercial litigation, and the Best Lawyers organization named him Lawyer of the Year for 2023 in his appellate practice.
Education
- University of Chicago Law School (J.D.) (high honors; Order of the Coif; Law Review editorial board; moot court)
- Dorot Fellowship in Israel
- University of Texas – Austin (M.A.)
- Trinity University (B.A.)
Speaking Engagements
A Public Affair: Legal Battles Over the Ballot Box, WORT FM. October 2020.
